1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to battery charger that charges rechargeable batteries, and a charging terminal structure for the battery charger.
2. Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H09-19069 teaches a battery charger that is used to charge a rechargeable battery and is built to prevent damage to the charging terminals of the battery charger in the event a foreign object falls into the space where the rechargeable battery is inserted for charging. To prevent a foreign object from contacting the charging terminals of the battery charger, the battery charger disclosed in JP-A-H09-19069 has the charging terminals disposed in the top-most part of a shallow storage space configured to hold a flat rechargeable battery.
The shape of the portion where the rechargeable battery is installed in the battery charger may be shaped in various ways to accommodate batteries of different shapes and facilitate installing and removing a battery from the charger. For example, a battery charger that charges box-shaped or rectangular batteries may be built with a pocket-like socket unit to facilitate installing a battery. Disposing the charging terminals inside the socket in such a charger has the advantage of protecting the terminals because the terminals are not exposed on the outside of the charger. On the other hand, when liquid or a foreign object gets into the charging socket of such a battery charger, the liquid may contact the charging terminals. Constructing a battery charger so that a battery can be easily installed and the charging terminals can also be protected from liquids and other foreign objects is thus not simple.